Decades after The Beatles reshaped global popular music, a highly anticipated new television drama exploring the band’s little-known formative years has entered production, with filming locations spanning two countries that shaped their earliest identity. Titled *Hamburg Days*, the six-part BBC One project centers on the era between 1960 and 1962, when the fledgling rock group played more than 250 chaotic, career-building shows in Hamburg, Germany’s bustling port city.
Unlike later Beatles content that focuses on the band’s legendary 1960s global superstardom, *Hamburg Days* spotlights the original lineup that many casual fans do not know well: it includes bassist Stuart Sutcliffe and drummer Pete Best, alongside young founding members John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison. The story draws its core inspiration from the memoirs of Klaus Voormann, a German artist and musician who collaborated closely with the band in later years — most famously designing the iconic cover art for their 1966 *Revolver* album, and even stepping in to play bass on select Beatles recordings.
The co-production between British and German entertainment firms will split filming between multiple key locations: Liverpool (the band’s lifelong hometown in northwest England), the northern German port of Hamburg, and Munich in southern Germany. Producers have framed the series as an intimate origin story, tracing how the young, scrappy group of British teenagers met Voormann and pioneering photographer Astrid Kirchherr — connections that would spark the artistic transformation that turned them into what would become the most influential music phenomenon in modern history.
Kirchherr, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 81, is widely credited with shaping The Beatles’ signature early visual identity, including the iconic mop-top hairstyle that became one of their most recognizable trademarks. She was also engaged to Sutcliffe, who left the band to pursue fine arts studies in Hamburg, only to die from a brain hemorrhage at just 21 years old in 1962, a devastating loss that left a lasting mark on the remaining band members. For his part, Best — who was famously ousted from the band by manager Brian Epstein in 1962, replaced by Ringo Starr — has previously spoken publicly about his shock at the abrupt dismissal, a moment the drama is expected to address with nuance.
The project boasts an acclaimed creative team. The script is penned by Wirral-born writer Jamie Carragher, who previously contributed to the award-winning HBO hit series *Succession*, while directing duties are split between Christian Schwochow, a veteran of Netflix’s *The Crown*, and German filmmaker Laura Lackmann. The newly announced cast features rising young performers: Rhys Mannion will lead as John Lennon, with Ellis Murphy as Paul McCartney, Harvey Brett as George Harrison, Louis Landau as Stuart Sutcliffe, and Patrick Gilmore as Pete Best. German actors round out the key creative roles, with Luna Jane portraying Astrid Kirchherr, Laura Tonke playing her mother Nielsa, and Casper von Bülow taking on the role of Klaus Voormann.
Cast members joined local officials from both Liverpool and Hamburg for a public event over the weekend, appearing at the opening of a new exhibition of never-before-seen Beatles letters in Hamburg. The gathering included Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram, who was in Hamburg for an official trade mission, and Hamburg state secretary Christoph Holstein.
*Hamburg Days* is not the only major Beatles biographical project currently in production: acclaimed director Sam Mendes is also working on a four-part feature film series about the band, which is on track to release in 2028, with a star-studded cast including Harris Dickinson as Lennon, Paul Mescal as McCartney, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, and Joseph Quinn as Harrison. For Liverpool, the arrival of the new drama cements the region’s growing status as a major UK production hub: in recent months, Merseyside has hosted more on-location shoots than any other UK region outside of London, with projects including *This City is Ours*, *The Cage*, and the iconic gangster series *Peaky Blinders* all filming there.